Protecting Reputations Online

In light of the newest situation where a Bangor, Pennsylvania teacher's aide had a nude photo of herself passed around her school, it is becoming more and more important to protect your reputation online. Young people do not have any problems posting pictures of themselves and their friends online in less than flattering situations and sometimes compromising positions. While it may seem harmless now what are those pictures going to do to future reputations? I once heard New York Times columnist David Pogue say never to post anything that you would not want your grandmother to see and that things posted online never stay where you put them (people "borrow" stuff and re-post to other sites). There is a new Commoncraft Show Video called "Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English" It is aimed at young people to try to get them to be more careful about what they post. The video is for evaluation only but as usual, Lee Lefever gets it right.

Lost Library Book

You might think he would have more on his mind.  You might think going to the inauguration, or walking on the pre-game Super Bowl field would have gone to his head.  But no, do you know what was on the mind of the hero pilot who brought his jetliner down into the Hudson River?  A lost library book that also found its way to the Hudson in the cargo-hold of the plane.  That’s right, US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger got in touch with his local library because the library book he borrowed via Inter-Library Loan (ILL) went down with the ship.  He asked for the overdue fines to be waved and for an extension but library officials went a step further.  Not only did the library forgive his overdue fines, they dropped the lost book fine and are now dedicating the replacement book to him.  Check out the article from the Philadelphia Inquirer.  As a librarian I plan to tell this story to my students because I am as impressed as the librarians where he borrowed the book at his sense of responsibility and hope my students are impressed too.   Oh by the way, the subject of the book borrowed was professional ethics.  Nice.